Member for Myall Lakes, Stephen Bromhead has congratulated North Coast TAFE employee Rod Cook for being selected as a finalist in the 2013 WorkCover NSW SafeWork Awards. Mr Cook is finalist in the Best individual ...

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

Congratulations to North Coast TAFE employee Rod Cook for being selected as a finalist in the 2013 WorkCover NSW SafeWork Awards.

Cuts to TAFE are shaping as a major election issue, as students face higher fees for many courses, teaching staff is reduced and the roll-out of a new computer system causes major headaches.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

These very dumb funding cuts to TAFE are very unpopular. Many courses and teaching staff have gone under so called smart and skilled. Particularly small, "thin market" specialised courses like this watchmaking course are very vulnerable and susceptible under this open market approach. Optical Mechanics is another similar one gone. Many other courses are being "rationalised" (code for being reduced down in student contact time), or being offered at less campuses, or shoved online in order to save money and meet reduced budgets. It is outrageous that this is happening while fees are also being increased dramatically at the same time! Students, and their employers, are being very short changed. Vulnerable courses are disappearing. Staff are losing jobs. Shameful Mr Baird.

FOR years, many people have accused successive NSW governments of harbouring a thinly veiled ambition to destroy the state’s TAFE system.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

It certainly is a very poor time to be penalising those who are trying to improve their skills and job prospects by hitting them with higher fees and cutting their tuition. It is really dumb. So, just why is the Baird government determined to destroy and then privatise TAFE when the NSW economy desperately needs this essential skill development?

THE NSW Greens plan to follow the lead of their federal counterparts by pushing for a wideranging inquiry into competitive funding of vocational education and training.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

A full inquiry into the competitive funding model known as "Smart and Skilled" under the Baird LNP government is an absolute necessity. If it's good enough for the Abbott government to look at the flaws in this competitive VET funding model then why not a proper look into it in NSW?

The TAFE system needs to be funded properly as does the higher education sector. Both sectors mesh and complement each other. One should not be funded at the expense of the other and public taxpayer money should not be going into for profit organisations.

TAFE Queensland has warned it will be forced to slash jobs and cut regional campuses as it struggles to compete with private tertiary educators.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

So, the cats really out if the bag. Private "for profit" RTOs don't want highly qualified teachers or to pay for them. They want much lower paid trainers. Is it any wonder the system is "racing to the bottom". In the end you get what you pay for. Pay for highly professionally educated TAFE teachers and get quality. Pay lower qualified trainers and get accordingly. This is a good example of where throwing skills acquisition to the "market" will simply fail to deliver. So, TAFE is having to also dumb down to compete. Heartbreaking.

THE crowd at the Meet the Candidates forum in Maryborough made it known their vote depended on the future of the city’s TAFE, hospital and workforce.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

TAFE is being decimated by the LNP state governments. Firstly, by severely underfunding it, then throwing TAFE to the open market where the "for profit RTOs" suck up taxpayer's money. This funding should be directed properly to TAFE where it will not be wasted, rather than lining the pockets of these shonky private VET providers. Much is beginning to emerge about these. One would think that both Newman in QLD and Baird in NSW would want people to know more about their real TAFE agenda. But of course, there is an election looming.

REJUVENATING Warwick TAFE has become a hot state election topic, with both of the major parties vowing to fight for its future.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

Proper TAFE funding has disappeared under all the various LNP State Governments and has been particularly decimated by Newman in Qld and Baird in NSW. the new Victorian Labor government understood the damage done down there and are attempting to address some of the problems. Newman's government has also dissolved TAFE as a government department, making it a statutory authority.

So, Mrs Ryan is absolutely correct when she points out how important TAFE has been as such a critical service across each state especially in regional communities. Perhaps the National Party in particular have a death wish for the communities they claim to represent? TAFE is critical to them Mr Newman.

The TAFE fees being set are ridiculous. We need to keep accessibility to TAFE public not private! Access to acquiring skills for those who need them not just those that can pay! Our economy will pay heavily in the long run if this continues.

The Baird LNP state government seem to want these huge increases in TAFE FEES which they have slated to come in from beginning of next year. They also don't seem to want people to know what they will have to pay but at the same time want to appear to be supporting quality TAFE. Very misleading.

Victoria's higher-education sector has slumped deeply into the red, with the financial watchdog revealing half of the state's TAFEs are running at a loss after savage government funding cuts.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

The people of NSW can expect the same under the Baird government's so called Smart & Skilled reform which has savagely cut TAFE funding and is wasting taxpayers money handing it to private shonk RTOs instead. It is the same pattern exactly and simply a little further back up the pipeline in NSW.

Five days out from election day, the opposition leader, Luke Foley, is trying to shift political focus onto fees for the state's TAFE students, which he says have risen up to $7000.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

The Baird LNP's so called Smart and Skilled reform may look very Dumb and even Dumber after Saturday's state election. The dramatic and unfair increases in TAFE fees is crippling to those looking for employment, retraining to re-enter employment, or as the second chance to gain employable skills. The sell off of electricity poles and wires is on the nose and this move to privatise and sell off TAFE is also very unpopular. It is very dumb policy indeed!

Campbelltown Labor candidate Greg Warren is pushing for a strong Macarthur TAFE, accusing the State Government’s Smart and Skilled reforms of “ruining” the system.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

Smart and Skilled is a very flawed policy. It is siphoning taxpayer funds away from TAFE and into the pockets of private "for profit" RTOs. The Baird government have not increased funding to the Vocational Education & Training sector, although they seem to want voters to think this. The "new" money is simply money being removed from TAFE and handed to these private providers, many of whom are real shonks with problems like those being uncovered in EVOCCACOLLEGE. Smart and Skilled is decimating TAFE and appears to be a reform designed to soften up TAFE by underfunding it, decimating its ability to function, and then selling it off for a song. Shameful Mr Baird.

Some private education providers are making huge profits at the expense of our traditional cornerstone of vocational education and training, TAFE.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

Taxpayer's money is being hived off to private for profit VET training organisations. This report reveals that they are making enormous profits at the expense of the cornerstone TAFE system. The Baird government's Smart and Skilled training reforms are directly to blame. Meanwhile this is decimating TAFE ready for the LNP government to sell it off as yet another public asset gone. Simply outrageous.

My wife's TAFE course at St George was notified that their course fee schedule was to be changed half way through their course, due to the Smart and...

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

Very shoddy treatment of students Mr Baird. I guess unless you really understand the importance of TAFE as the second chance education system you would treat them this way. But then LNP politicians rarely set foot in a TAFE college. I should know. Until very recently retired I was a full time TAFE teacher for 27 years. I can count on the fingers of one hand over all that time when a LNP politician really took an interest In TAFE. Now "profit" seems to be their only interest, certainly not the interest of the students. Shameful.

Victorian TAFEs are set to deliver operating losses of more than $70 million, according to figures released by the state government.

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

The previous coalition government in Victoria simply abandoned TAFE and decimated it. This is the mess left over for the new Victorian Labor government to attempt to fix. A disgraceful mess lacking in any vision except to line the pockets of the private "for profit" shonks who cherry picked the changed funding landscape at the great expense of the taxpayer. Go figure the sense in this ideologically driven flawed policy! TAFE is too important to be treated so poorly with skills development so critical to people, their communities, and the economies of each state. The impact is even worse in regional areas.

Well, the NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli gave a pledge that students with disabilities would not be worse off under these so called Smart and Skilled TAFE reforms. They start this month. The trouble is that this significant underfunding has created such cash strapped TAFE institutes that they are desperate to see money coming in. This, however, is no excuse. The Minister is ultimately responsible for the mess being created by this. This is but one example.

Battling education group Vocation is preparing for some potentially heavy write-downs on the carrying value of some of its assets as new chief financial officer Stewart Cummins conducts a thorough review of the business.

Education and high level of skills development should be seen as the investment in human capital that it really is. Unfortunately it is now being seen as a commodity to exploit "for profit" in itself rather than the future investment which ironically will lead to higher productivity and hence more profitable businesses by the industries who need these skills. My cherished ophthalmic eyecare industry is a very good example of one that is squandering its past investment for the short term needs of large corporations. Very bad news in the long term.

This is what TAFE is also being forced to do under the TAFE cuts in order to compete. Shorten courses, throw it online, and dumb down content and delivery. So much for maintaining high standards of professionalism.

We we need to stop the TAFE cuts and stop the bleeding of taxpayers money to low quality private RTOs. Full stop!

This government now wants to tell the people of NSW what a terrific training organisation TAFE is while at the same time it systematically does its level best to erode that very quality. Are they serious?

Peter Haydon Druery's insight:

This is high level hypocrisy Mr Baird. You can't have it both ways to promote and destroy TAFE simultaneously. This is an attempted smokescreen to hide what his government is really doing to TAFE. NSW voters are not stupid.

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